Final note from The Training of the Twelve

Bruce’s exposition on the coming of the Holy Spirit is good. Bear in mind that this was written in 1871, before Azusa Street and the modern Pentecostal movement.

“Such being the power promised, it was evidently indispensable for success. Vain were official titles—apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, rulers; vain clerical robes, without this garment of divine power to clothe the souls of the eleven. Vain then, and equally vain now. The world is to be evangelized, not by men invested with ecclesiastical dignities and with parti-colored garments, but by men who have experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and who are visibly endued with the divine power of wisdom, and love and zeal.

“As the promised power was indispensable, so it was in its nature a thing simply to be waited for. The disciples were directed to tarry till it came. They were neither to attempt to do without it, nor were they to try to get it up. And they were wise enough to follow their instructions. They fully understood that the power was needful, and that it could not be got up, but must come down. All are not equally wise. Many virtually assume that the power Christ spake of can dispensed with, and that in fact it is not a reality, but a chimera. Others, more devout, believe in the power, but not in man’s impotence to invest himself with it. They try to get the power up by working themselves and others into a frenzy of excitement. Failure sooner or later convinces both parties of their mistake, showing the one that to produce spiritual results something more than eloquence, intellect, money, and organization are required; and showing the other that true spiritual power cannot be produced, like electric sparks, by the friction of excitement, but must come sovereignly and graciously down from on high.”

<idle musing>
Well, I finished the book 27 years after starting it. Of course, I had to start over again when I started reading it. On the whole, the book was good, but not great—certainly not as great as I had been led to believe. There were some gems in it, as you can see from the last month or so. I would say the last 120 pages were the best. This quote certainly is right on. We so often try to do it ourselves, either by ignoring the Holy Spirit or by trying to induce him ourselves. God will have neither extreme, since they both are not God, but man.
</idle musing>